Canada's Political Ice Storm

WEAK GRIP: Canadian Prime Minister Martin is running second to his Conservative opposition in the latest opinion polls

Even for those accustomed to northern climates, an election in the dark of Canadian winter can try the soul. On Jan. 23 Canadians will vote for a new Parliament, and in this normally unflappable nation there's a restless and angry mood that bodes ill for the governing Liberal Party. With two weeks remaining before the vote, Prime Minister Paul Martin was running second in opinion surveys behind Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper, whose right-of-center platform of taxation, gun control and same-sex marriage (he doesn't like any of them) until recently seemed to place him well outside the Canadian...